Pretty Good Year

Pretty Good Year

Reviews

The New York Times

“The second premiere on Friday was “Pretty Good Year” by Trey McIntyre, who has been the choreographic associate at the Houston Ballet and is widely represented in other companies. Like “VIII,” this ballet is worth a visit to City Center, although both are filled with possibilities only partly realized.

A plotless piece set to Dvorak, “Pretty Good Year” does ceaseless battle with its own ingenuity. It is a showcase for Herman Cornejo, a gloriously stylish young dancer, and three couples. An experiment in reworking the classical vocabulary does not, however, mean the dancing has to be constantly quirky and busy. When Mr. Cornejo plops down on his back at the end of this workout of a ballet, even its choreographer seems to admit wryly that more could have been less.

Mr. Wheeldon and Mr. McIntyre are prolific choreographers in their 30’s, and both have created works for the Diamond Project at New York City Ballet, where Mr. Wheeldon is resident choreographer.”

Ballet-Dance Magazine

“As I made my way into the City Center on October 23rd for one of ABT’s Saturday evening performances, I suddenly realized that it had been over 4 months since I had seen a ballet – or any dance performance, for that matter. In a lot of ways I felt like a first time ballet goer, which added to my excitement about finally seeing some dance again and my anticipation of seeing Trey McIntyre’s brand new “Pretty Good Year.”

I didn’t have to wait long, as the curtain rose on McIntyre’s world premiere, with the always elegant Stella Abrera and Herman Cornejo posed center stage in lemon yellow and silver costumes by Liz Prince. The music by Antonin Dvorak (Piano Trio No.1 in B flat major – first, second, and fourth movements) was performed by pianist Barbara Bilach, violinist Ron Oakland, and violoncellist Scott Ballantyne, and carried the dancers through liveliness, melancholy, intensity, playfulness.

The seven dancers – Zhong-Jing Fang, Abrera, Sarawanee Tanatanit, Cornejo, Bo Busby, Alexandre Hammoudi, and Matthew Murphy – displayed graceful deliberate movements, quick crisp unisons, and smoothly flowing pas de deux, changing their emotions as the mood of the music changed. The piece was centered around Cornejo’s high-flying energy and solemn intensity, and he seemed to connect to the audience with his presence and openness, drawing them into the performance.”